Vol. 3, No. 3. Port Moresby, Monday, 16Th March, 1931
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Vol. 3, No. 3. Port Moresby, Monday, 16th March, 1931. Price : 3d. It is not easy to suggest anything to the hungry-time comes you can go Work, Thrift, and Rain. help them at present. to your store and take out some to go -+ on with. But at present Pnpuans N the last, issue we spoke Storing Food. about Hard Times; and I hope that someday the people of don't seem to want to grow rice; and we said that hard times Papua will learn to grow the sort of they grow very little corn ; and at any in Australia did not mean rate they would not know how that the Papuan natives to use the corn seeds if they nee a suffer much. Re- did store them. So what is member that for you there are three there to do ? 3 .. wportant things. On the one hand Sago and " Lakatoi." '.$>ere are Work and Thrift (or Sav- ing) ; on the other hand there- is the As for the Motu people and their Season (or the Rainfall). You have neighbours, we hope that later on to trust to luck about the Rainfall; this year they will not fail to send but there is no luck about Work or away their lakatoi. There is always Thrift. They are always good things plenty of food in the Gulf and the and necessary things. If you work Purari Delta. If the women make and save, you will be more ready for pots and?£ the men take the trouble the bad Season when it comes. to make lakatoi, you can get enough A Bad Season About rry you through the hungry Port Moresby. Now in most parts of Papua Some villages sent no lakatoi this the people always get plenty of year. Why ? Some men said they rain. (In many parts they get were afraid of the pu.mpuri of the far more than they want). But Koiari men. That is all nonsense. there are other placeswhere they some- Big men who could be captains of times get too little rain. And this lakatoi turn into silly old women year there has been too little rain when there is talk of Koiari pu.ripuri. along the coast above and below Port The Government are sad to think Moresby. that after so many years the Motuans It has, in fact, been a"Bad Season." still believe that puripuri could spoil The hot sun has burnt up the gardens, and the yams and taitu have in some Then there are some who say they places died in the ground ; and some fear the rough sea itself: they think of the people are feeling anxious about KAIVA KUKU MASK. of the Vaiviri, and say, "Not for me ! " food. The Councillors from Porebada Well, that is a great pity too. Your and Eholasi, fro111 Kilakila, Pari and food that can be stored for a lollg time. fathers used to send lakatoi long Vabukori, and from Gaile have come Wheq they have learnt to grow rice before the white man came. They in to see the Magistrate in Port and corn they will not need to go were not afraid of the wind and the Moresb~and to tell him all about it. hungry. For you put your rice and waves. It will be bad luck for the This is all very bad luck for the corn in a safe place; you don't eat Motu women of to-day if their men People whose gardens have failed. all of it in a hurry; and then when are frightened of the sea. 18 THE PAPUAN VILLAGER. Perhaps it is too much trouble to THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. A Porebada " Lakatoi." make a lakatoi. But that can't be - true. It is worth a lot of trouble to Saving Money. But if people cannot store enough One of the pictures shows Rakata food for a bad season there is another The almost black skin of the Hippo- potamus is thick and leathery and is a Maraga of Porebnda counting up th way of saving. This way is by saving bundles of sago withMarasi of Ua money. Of course you have first to protection to hini from other animals. Even the lion finds his thick hide too Rakatani had given him 35 pots find ways to make money and you an am-shell; and he had in ret have to work hard. Then when you tough! He himself feeds only on vegetables and what a lot of sweet 35 kokohara bundles of sago an have got the money you can put it in big go~ugoruof sago. YOU can your box (or, better still, in the Bank) potato tops it would take to fill his great mouth ! What a mess he wonld these men in the picture sticking t and keep it. When your food is kahi or tally-sticks into each bundl finished you take out some of your make of your gardens should he as they count them. money and buy rice or flour. come one night to feed there ! For he tramples down as well as eats the The lakatoi had 5 big dug-outs and But here again you must think a crops, making a snorting noise as he it was well loaded. Bodibo and Sisia long way ahead. Do not wait till goes. His huge feet do far more had been burning their keikei pot you are hungry before you begin to damage than all the food he edts ; and every day; and we hear that th make money. Make it whenever you when he comes he does not come lakatoi got safely home to Porebad can, and put it by. alone, for these animals live in Some of you can make copra, or families and packs, sometimes as dive for shell ; some can sell fruit and many as 40 at time. Just think fish and vegetables to the white what your gardens would be after The Scout Rally. Sinabadas; some can cut firewood such a visit. One Hippopotamus is -- and carry it up to the houses; some as big as perhaps 20 bush pigs. HE Chief Scout, Lord Baden can make ornaments or toy canoes or T Powell, has visited Australiawith model houses which visitors to Papua During the day they nearly always Lady Powell; and the Boy Scouts are glad to buy; some of you have stay in the water. They may lie near and Girl Guides will be joining in been taught to do carpentry and cane the banks only partly under water, or "rallies " to meet him. Two scouts work, and you can make chairs and they may sleep in pools with only from Poreporena have gone down by tables for the white people. You their eyes and noses showing, some- the Morinda to the rally at Brisbane. should take every chance you can to thing like crocodiles. At night they The two lucky boys chosen. are Arua make money, and not only when you do all their travelling and can go long Gavera(who works in the Government happen to need it; make money at distances. Such short legs for such plumber's shop), Lohia Udu (who other times when there is plenty to long walks ! They have been known works in the B.N.G. Company). In eat and y~uare having an easy time. to go 25 miles in a single night. The next issue we hope to tell something Save your money. The time may mother animal when crossing the of what they saw and did in Brisbane. come when you will need it badly. water places her baby on her back. If frightened she goes under the water, but can only stay down 2 minutes for she must rise for the baby to breathe ! Steamers in Port Moresby. " Medals for The " Vaiviri It must be a very strange sight to see __*__ Heroes. a herd of these big fat creatures URING March there will have swimming across a river with their D been five big boats in Papuan HE Lloyd's Medals for Igua eyes and noses just above the surface. waters. The Morinda arrived on the T Kevnu and Gari Dai have been 5th, the Le Maire on the 7th; the sent to His Excellency the Governor. -"C. W." Carisso will arrive on the 17th from He will present them to these two [Hippopotamus is said to be " the largest represent- America, the Havre on the 18th from men when he comes back by the next ative of the non-ruminating artiodactyle ungulate mammals." This only means it is a distant relntive Singapore and the Barmcombe, a Morinda. of the pig. Ed.] copra boat, about two days later. MARCH, 1931 E PAPUAN VILLA( ,Earthquakes, Tidal Waves, Fiji. The sort of wind that knocks GLIDING. and Hurricanes. everything over, lifts tile roofs off houses, and pulls trees up by the roots, - E have seen so many flying - is called a "hurricane." Re don't machines in Papoa that we An Earthquake in Papua. W get them in Papua. A good blow are sometimes quite tired of hearing N Tuesday, the 24th of last frorn the South-East map pull a bit about them. Yet whenever we hear () month, an earthquake was felt of your hair out, and it may wreck a one we rush out to see it fly overhead. in Port Moresby. It happened dur- few canoes, but it doesn't knock your ing the night, and it was big enough All the flvinn ., " rrlachines which we village to pieces.